Guest Speaker Roger Harvey

He also touched on the Literacy projects and Maternity Care for Mother & Child (which are big projects throughout the Pacific Islands). Roger was very informed about our club activities and the service we give at District level (e.g. RYDER, RYLA, RDU, RLI, etc).  He spoke about how Rotary clubs are moving with the times, offering for example, club flexibility and membership flexibility; club personality difference (St John’s being a great example of this) and satellite club options.  He advised of Friendship exchanges with Canadian Rotary clubs coming up as a highlight for next year and spoke of how ClubRunner is on the go. Roger reminded us that our District Theme is ‘Rotary Serving Humanity’ and how these three words state very clearly what Rotary’s priority is.  He reported that our district has the most female members in the whole of Australasia.  He also noted that only one other club in Auckland had a higher female membership than St John’s (a definite challenge to be met there!) Roger closed with a reminder that as Rotarians we need to think about retention.  Keeping members is something all clubs need to work on.  He reminded us to “listen to the need to be there for those in need” and urged us to continue to encourage new members to join and to continue our great job of igniting enthusiasm for Rotary.